This is an interview with Oliver Miao, CEO of Centerscore, a US based Java games developer started in 2000 by four friends.
Thanks for taking the time to talk with us Oliver . Can you tell us a bit about Centre Score? What is the company background?
Centerscore is one of the most veteran wireless games developers in the US. We started with internet games, but ran into problems and were planning to shut the company down. Luckily, we got a contract to develop games for cell phones and we haven't looked back.
Can you tell us a little about your approach and method to producing a mobile phone game?
We typically will take a basic game concept and design it from the ground up for the cell phone. Key cell phone specific considerations we look at include key layout, screen size, performance, size of the game, and what phones we will eventually port the game to.
Mobile phone games can be basic, so what do you see being possible in future, say two years from now.
We're only at the cusp of what's possible with cell phone games. I hope that in two years time, developers will no longer be too constrained by performance issues and network connectivity issues. It's then that you'll see truly, always connected networked games.
Do you specialise in any one type of game, platform for example?
We currently will develop any type of game. More important then the genre to us is the possibilities in the individual game design. As far as platforms go, we exclusively target J2ME and BREW.
Tell me about a game that you could make if the sky was the limit with developemt and technology?
We had an internet game called Wormhole that was a multi-player top-down space shooter. The game became so addictive that it was banned from some high schools. Our goal is not to take away from anyone's education - but that was pretty flattering.
Do you have plans to move into any related sectors.
Not for sometime. The potential of cell phone gaming is amazing and we're aiming to be a leader in the industry.
Some traditional game developers put hidden features into their product, "easter eggs" I have heard them called. Have you ever done anything similar and if so, care to share?
In some of our games, you have to advance levels to unlock new characters. We have codes that allow them to be unlocked immediately. I don't have the codes on hand, but would be happy to follow-up with some of them later.
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Thanks for answering our questions and telling us a little more about Centerscore. If you would like to find out more about Centrescore you can visit their website.